Republican Turkish Party leader Tufan Erhurman will be prime minister of new 4-party coalition government

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci on Friday approved a new four-party coalition government for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Tufan Erhurman will be the prime minister of the country’s new coalition government, taking over from Huseyin Ozgurgun.

Though his National Unity Party (UBP) won a 35.6 percent plurality in the Jan. 7 elections, Ozgurgun was unable to form a coalition government, and on Jan. 24 he passed that mandate onto Erhurman.

The UBP won 21 seats in parliament, while the CTP got 12 seats with 17 percent of the vote.

Joining Erhurman’s CTP in the coalition are the People's Party (HP) with nine seats in parliament, and the Communal Democracy Party (TDP, three seats) and Democratic Party (DP), with three seats apiece.

Twenty-six out of parliament’s 50 seats are needed to form a coalition.

Since the last general elections of January 2013, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has had three coalition governments led by three different prime ministers.

In November 2017, the Turkish Cypriot parliament passed a motion calling for early elections. Under the motion, general elections originally planned for July 2018 were moved up seven months to Jan. 7.